Printed wiring boards and chip carriers are conventionally made up of a plurality of individual elements joined together to provide various levels of wiring on the surfaces of the elements and interconnections between the various wiring levels, such interconnection between the various levels often being referred to as Z-axis interconnections. In some conventional techniques for forming such interconnections in the Z-axis, a drilling operation is required after the various elements have been joined together. This requires precise alignment of all of the elements, as well as precise drilling of the final structure, which creates the possibility of misalignment, at least requiring either rework of the board or, at most, scrapping of the board after it reaches this late assembly stage. Moreover, the z-interconnection provides a more efficient utilization of space on the circuit board compared to conventional through hole drilling. Thus, it is desirable to provide elements for forming a printed wiring board or chip carrier and a technique for forming the elements in the printed wiring board or chip carrier which does not require drilling in the final stage but, rather, allows the individual elements to be formed with the components of the Z-axis connection which, when finally joined together, will provide the necessary connection between various layers of metal wiring.